


hot thoughts melting my cool

by psycheDahlia



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Blow Jobs, First Time, First Time Blow Jobs, Friends to Lovers, Hair Washing, Hotels, M/M, Only One Bed, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, Requited Love, Road Trips, Sexual Tension, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Shower Sex, Showers, Slow Burn, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-09-25 03:03:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17113217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psycheDahlia/pseuds/psycheDahlia
Summary: “You traded blows with me, dude. Much like our stint in Miami.”- Grumps Dream Course, Ep 8The stint in Miami.





	1. you got me uptight twisting inside

**Author's Note:**

> title, chapter titles, and in-text lyrics all come from "hot thoughts" by spoon

_Hot thoughts melting my mind_  
_Could be your accent mixing with mine_  
_You got me uptight, twisting inside_  
_Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, babe_

//

The Florida sunset is gorgeous as all shit, but it’s also blinding the everloving fuck out of Arin while he’s trying to drive. His sun visor is down, but uselessly, the sun peeking out around all its edges, more sun coming in through the windshield around the visor than is getting blocked by the visor in the first place.

Fuck his past self for forgetting his sunglasses. Fuck his past self _so hard._

Dan’s in the seat next to him, singing along to the Rush song on the radio around a mouthful of Skittles and watching the Miami scenery go by through the windshield. He’s got a blanket wrapped around his shoulders (a long-standing compromise between Arin’s need to blast the A/C while driving and Dan constantly being too cold) and, infuriatingly, a pair of sunglasses perched on his cheerful, serene, not-driving-a-car face.

With an irritated growl, Arin snatches Dan’s sunglasses off his face and puts them onto his own.

“Hey!” Dan cries out, muffled by candy, throwing an arm dramatically over his eyes. He swallows the candy and cries out, “I’m blind!”

“Well I’m sorry, Dan,” Arin tells him, not sounding sorry at all, “but I’m _trying_ to get us to the hotel without running off the _goddamn_ road because the _goddamn_ sun is in my _goddamn_ eyes, but if that’s not important to you, you can have them back.”

“Mmm,” Dan contemplates as he washes the Skittles down with the rest of his Pepsi. “No, I guess that’s fine. Living to see the next hotel bed is worth the loss of my eyesight.”

“Oh, please,” Arin rolls his eyes. “You’re not gonna go blind.”

“I could!” Dan insists. “I could totally go blind if I wanted to! I could stare right at the sun until I go blind just to spite you!”

"Nah, you won’t do that,” Arin retorts. “You’re not Ross.”

Danny giggles. “Okay, fair,” he agrees, “That would be a very Ross thing to do.” He settles into the seat, accepting his new sunglasses-less existence. “Hey, how much further until the hotel, anyway?”

“I dunno,” Arin says, glancing over his shoulder before switching lanes. “I, uh...gimme a sec. Or just check the GPS.”

Dan picks Arin’s phone up off the dashboard and checks the screen. “Aw, sweet, man, only eight minutes!”

“Oh, shit, that exit must be coming up then,” Arin remarks. “Is it on the right or the left?”  
  
“The uh…” Dan checks the screen again. “Left, I think.”

“You think?” Arin echoes. “Goddamnit, give me the phone.” Dan hands it over. Arin glances down for a brief second and then hands it right back. “It’s on the right, dude.”

“Well excuse me!” Dan cries, tossing the phone back onto the dash. “I’m not a fucking…road warrior!” It's an obvious moment of word salad through word association, and it gets them both laughing.

Once they've mostly calmed down, Arin snorts out, “Mad Dan, Road Warrior."

“Wouldn’t it be, uh, like...Dad Dan?” Dan offers, and then giggles, “and...Ad Arin, or uh, An Arin, maybe.”

“An Arin,” Arin repeats, laughing again. “Just an Arin. Just one of many.”

“Aww, no!” Dan squeals. “You’re one of a kind. You’re _the_ Arin.”

Arin glances briefly over at Dan, who’s slouched real deep in his chair, face all scrunched up from the sun in his eyes. Arin fondly replies, “And you’re my Dan!”

“In 0.3 miles, take the exit,” the GPS pipes in.

“Oh, shit,” Arin mutters, realizing he has to get over three lanes relatively quickly. He goes to rest his hand near the passenger seat headrest as he checks his blind spots, but does it without looking, missing completely and grabbing the next nearest thing, Dan’s shoulder, instead.

Dan startles slightly. “Hey, mister,” he giggles.

“Sorry,” Arin replies distractedly, moving his hand to the intended spot on the chair.

“Don’t be,” Dan fires back, grabbing Arin’s hand and moving it back onto his shoulder with a smirk.

“What…” Arin raises his eyebrows at him, looking briefly caught off guard, but his expression ultimately melts into a smile. “Don’t distract the driver,” he fondly lectures, shaking Dan playfully by the shoulder and then retreating back into his own space now that the car is safely in the correct lane.

“The driver started it,” Dan grins, scratching at his stomach under his shirt. “Man, are you hungry? I could definitely go for some food.”

“Seriously? I just watched you goddamn _inhale_ Skittles and Pepsi for _hours,_ ” Arin reminds him. “How could you possibly be hungry?”

“I guess,” Dan throws up a hand. “If you wanna call that _food.”_

“I mean, what do you wanna call it?” Arin retorts. “Medicine?”

“Maybe! For the soul!” Dan breathes, voice high-pitched and exaggerated, pressing both hands to his heart and sighing dramatically. 

Arin snorts out a laugh. “Something tells me that ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series would not have sold nearly as well if it was called ‘Skittles and Pepsi for the Soul.’’

 _“Skittles and Pepsi for the Soul!”_ Dan cries, doubling over in laughter. “If I ever write a self-help book, I am definitely calling it that. Hundred percent.”

“You should,” Arin agrees. “It’d sell, like, a million copies.”

“You literally _just_ said that it would  _not_ sell well,” Dan points out.

“I said if the ‘Chicken Soup’ series had been called that, it wouldn’t have,” Arin explains. “A self help book by you, though, that would do great, man.”

“I dunno about that,” Dan snorts. “Would you take advice from a guy who talks about dicks on the internet for a living and wrestled an alligator while super high once?”

“Hell yeah!” Arin cries. “Are you kidding me? I’d love to take advice from that guy.”

“You _can_ take advice from that guy!” Dan remarks. “You _have,_ in fact, taken advice from that guy! Numerous times!”

“I have!” Arin agrees. “And it’s been good advice!”

“Thanks, man!” Dan grins.

“Take the exit,” the GPS chirps out.

Arin snaps the sun visor back into place now that he’s turning away from the sun and tosses Dan’s sunglasses back at him. “Aw shit, man, almost there!”

“Alright!” Dan cheers, slipping the sunglasses on. “I can’t wait to sprawl out on that giant comfy hotel mattress.”

“You have a giant comfy mattress at home,” Arin reminds him.

“Well, yeah,” Dan concedes, “But I dunno, man, hotel mattresses are special!”

“Hotel mattresses are shit,” Arin argues. “They have to be. They just buy a ton of them in bulk. They’re not gonna be super high quality mattresses.”

“Man,” Dan huffs. “Don’t, like, ruin my happiness with your _facts,_ dude. Just let me enjoy my probably super cheap mattress that tons of other people have slept on. Let me have this!”

“Fine, fine,” Arin waves him off. “What I meant to say was that hotel mattresses are _obviously_ handmade by the gods themselves.”

“Aha! I knew it!” Dan grins.

“In 0.2 miles, your destination is on the right,” the GPS says.

Dan cheers at the news. “It’s on my side!” he cries, just like a little kid. Arin rolls his eyes but can’t help but smile once Dan turns his back to stare eagerly out the window. His optimism is just so contagious.

“What does this place look like?” Dan asks.

“I dunno,” Arin replies. “All I know is it’s called ‘The Ravenna.’”  
  
“Uhh,” Dan says, sounding suddenly uneasy. “Think there’s a lot of hotels in Miami called ‘The Ravenna’?”

“Probably,” Arin answers. “Why?”  
  
“Think there’s a lot of hotels in Miami around 0.2 miles from when the GPS said 0.2 miles, and also on the right side of our car?”

“What…?”

“Because,” Dan finishes, sounding like a doctor giving a bad prognosis, “I am seeing a sign for 'The Ravenna’, and it seems like it’s been, mm, about 0.2 miles, and it’s sure as fuck on my side of the car, but…”

Arin glances over to where Dan is indicating and goes, “Oh, fuck.”

“Arrived,” the GPS cheerfully informs them. Arin pulls to a stop right outside a faded white two-story motel that looks as though it’s been untouched by anything but weather since the mid seventies.

“Oh, _fuck,_ ” Dan giggles. “It looks like the Crystal Palace from Breaking Bad.”

“It literally looks like the Crystal Palace from Breaking Bad,” Arin agrees. “Why, uh, why did Brent book us a stay at the Crystal Palace from Breaking Bad, Dan?”

“I don’t know, Arin,” Dan answers. “That’s a really good question.”

“Does he want us murdered?” Arin asks. “Is this part of Brent’s plan to murder us?”

“Maybe it’s a reward,” Dan offers. “Maybe Brent’s arranged for them to greet us with some hookers and blow.”

“Is blow methamphetamines?”

“Blow is cocaine,” Dan replies.

“Oh,” Arin nods. “I don’t want that, then.”

“Would you have wanted it if it was meth?” Dan asks, amused.

“No!” Arin cries. “I was just clarifying…”

“Didn’t wanna accidentally turn down a hit of that sweet baby blue,” Dan grins. A horn blares from behind them. “Shit!”

“Fuck,” Arin agrees, pulling into the Ravenna parking lot. “I was so intimidated by the Crystal Palace that I straight up stopped dead in the street.” He navigates the car into a space near the door marked ‘OFFICE’ and glances at Dan. “What do you wanna do?”

“Alright,” Dan says, biting his lip as he thinks. “How about...I call Brent, see what elaborate practical joke is being played on us, while you go to the front desk and see if we actually have a reservation here in the first place? If they’ve never heard of us, we’ll know we’re just getting punked.”

“Do people still say ‘punked’?” Arin wonders aloud.

“I still say 'punked',” Dan replies.

“Fair enough,” Arin nods, turning off the car and undoing his seatbelt. “Alright, well, if the front desk manager is Ashton Kutcher we’ll know for sure we’re getting punked.”

“Oh, we’ll know for _sure!”_ Dan agrees, fishing his phone out of his pants pocket. “Ashton would be a dead giveaway.”

“Yeah, if it’s Ashton I won’t even bother asking about a reservation,” Arin replies. “I’ll just come right back.”

“I mean, yeah, at that point the jig is up,” Dan nods, his grin wild and amused. “No point sticking around past that point.”

“After Ashton shows up they just make fun of you,” Arin remarks.

“True,” Dan scrolls through the many contacts on his phone to find Brent’s name. “Alright, man, let’s figure this shit out.”

As Arin gets out of the car, he hears Dan cheerfully ask, “Hey, Brent! What the _fuck_ did we ever do to you?” Laughing softly to himself, Arin stops briefly to make sure he has his wallet in his pocket and then heads into the office.

Not ten minutes later, Arin comes back out of the office, a smirk on his face, holding up the two keys dangling from his fingers to show to Dan, who’s now left the car and is leaning against the passenger side door wearing a darkly amused expression.

“This place is great,” Arin says flatly, the question of whether they have a reservation clearly already having been answered by the keys in Arin’s hand. “Did you know they have a _pool?”_

“Glad you like it,” Dan retorts dryly, “because we’re staying. I was half-right, there is more than one Ravenna. Apparently one is very nice. I looked it up on my phone while you were gone. It has a complimentary sauna.” Dan sighs. “Brent was trying to get us into _that_ one, but he got the phone number for _this_ Ravenna instead by mistake. And, of course, the other one is totally booked now.”

“Naturally,” Arin nods. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Brent’s looking around for other options, but he said it’s pretty unlikely he’ll be able to find anything the day of.” Dan shrugs, “I mostly just kinda said it was alright, though. It’s only for one night, and I’ve stayed in _way_ worse.”

“Yeah, it’s whatever,” Arin says, but his amused smirk hasn’t faded.

Dan, noticing this, furrows his brow. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” Arin replies, his tone unconvincing. “You wanna go check out the room?”

“Yeah, might as well,” Dan mutters. He brightens suddenly. “Wait, did you say they had a pool?”

Arin laughs and walks around the car. Dan follows him. “Yeah, man,” Arin tells him. “It’s right around back. Hot tub too.”

“Aw shit,” Dan grins. “I know where I’m gonna be tonight.”

“Yeah?” Arin asks, popping the trunk. “You wanna go swim now?”

“No!” Dan cries, grabbing his own backpack and tossing Arin his pink duffel bag. “I need food, man. I told you.”

“Oh, right,” Arin tosses his bag onto his shoulder and closes the trunk with a loud slam. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“You gotta feed me, man!” Dan wails dramatically, following Arin up the steps to the second story of the motel. “I’m tiny! I’ll waste away!”

“I kept you very well-stocked with candy and soda all the way up here,” Arin remarks, “I thought that’s what children like you eat!”

“Ooh, sick burn,” Dan snorts. “Also, _not_ what children should eat.”

“Not what they _should_ eat,” Arin calls over his shoulder. “But they _do.”_

“I suppose that’s true,” Dan concedes. “I dunno! I don’t have kids.” Arin pauses to wait for him at the top of the steps. “Can we get sushi?” Dan asks as he catches up. They walk side-by side down the open-air hallway towards their room.

“Yeah,” Arin agrees, checking the number on the key and stopping at the designated door. “If there’s some around here. I’ll have to check and see.”

“What? It’s Miami. They gotta have sushi around here somewhere,” Dan insists.

Arin hands Dan his duffel so he can unlock the door, Dan shrugs it onto his shoulder with a soft grunt of effort. “I don’t wanna go too far,” Arin admits. “If we go over a certain number of miles we have to pay more on the rental car.”

“I know,” Dan agrees, “but come on, they _gotta_ …” He trails off as Arin opens the door to their room. “Oh, no _fucking_ way.”

The room is decorated in garish 80s chic, everything in shades of salmon and cream and seafoam. The reason for Dan’s outburst, however, and the presumed reason for Arin’s smirk earlier, is the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room. The one, singular, _only_ queen sized bed.  
  
Dan dissolves into laughter, doubling over so hard he almost loses his balance. Arin catches him by the handle on his backpack and hauls him back, slightly too hard.

“There’s only one bed,” Dan cries, catching himself around Arin's neck and burying his laughing face in Arin’s shoulder. “Did you know? Were you gonna tell me?”

“Yeah, they told me at the desk,” Arin replies, still holding onto Dan's backpack. “And no, I wasn’t gonna tell you. Why bother? You were gonna see for yourself eventually.”

“Fair enough,” Dan finally steadies himself, shrugging his backpack off into Arin's hands and then tossing himself onto the bed, sprawling out over it and sighing ecstatically. “Ahhh. It _is_ nice, though.”

“Really?” Arin snorts, tossing Dan's backpack onto the bed so it lands next to him. “Okay, hotel beds I’d give you, but _motel_ beds?” Arin quirks an eyebrow. “Someone’s probably done coke in that bed.”

“Oh, I’m 100% certain that _many_ people have done coke in this bed,” Dan stoically replies. “And worse. But god _damn_ if it ain’t comfy.”

“You’re fuckin’ gross,” Arin replies, “and I’m kind of surprised you didn’t offer up even a token resistance to there only being one bed. Kinda starting to suspect you put Brent up to this.”

“Come on, man,” Danny giggles. “You know I didn’t. I’m just through being surprised anymore. We’re already staying the night in the set from a gritty Miami crime thriller. We might as well throw Stock Fanfiction Trope #37 on top of it.”

“Is it really number thirty-seven?” Arin asks.

Dan laughs. “Man, I dunno,” he admits. “I just chose a number at random.”

“And you didn’t choose sixty-nine?”

“Fuck,” Dan cries, sounding genuinely disappointed. “Shit. Missed opportunity.” Arin pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through it. “Sorry, am I boring you?” Dan asks, jokingly angry.

“Sorry,” Arin replies. “Trying to find you some sushi.”

“Oh, shit, don’t be sorry!” Dan brightens. “That’s really nice of you, thank you!”

“I told you I would,” Arin smiles.

“I know, but still!” Dan sits up on the bed, his curls bouncing in all directions. Arin reaches out and adjusts a tuft on top that’s stayed straight up, fixing it without looking up from his phone.  “Thanks,” Dan grins.

“You’re welcome,” Arin replies, though whether he thinks Dan’s thanking him for the sushi or the hair-fixing is unclear. “Oh shit, you’re in luck, man, there’s a place like three minutes away. What do you want?”

“Uhhh, shit, what _do_ I want?” Dan bites his lip. “Can I see the menu?”

Arin hands his phone over and then walks into the dated bathroom, not wanting Dan to feel pressured to make a decision quickly from Arin standing over him. Not actually having anything to do in the bathroom, though, Arin just stares into the mirror. He looks a little haggard from the long drive; he’s glad it’s Dan’s turn to do most of the driving tomorrow. There’s faint circles under his eyes, and the ponytail he’d blindly put his hair into while driving has a few unflattering little bumps in it that he hadn’t noticed. He tugs the tie out of his hair, shaking it loose around his face and then combing through it with his fingers.

“Lookin’ sexy, sexy,” Dan greets him, coming up behind him in the bathroom and wrapping his arms around Arin’s waist, burying his face against the Arin’s shoulder blade.

“Uhh,” Arin laughs a little awkwardly. “What’re you doing?”

“Giving you your phone back,” Dan replies, slipping the phone into Arin’s palm. Glancing down at the screen, he sees that Dan’s picked out his sushi order. “Is that okay?” Dan asks, withdrawing from Arin and leaning against the wall next to the mirror, hip cocked against the sink. “I tried to keep it under $20, but…”

“That’s fine,” Arin assures him, tapping the button to send in the order and then turning the phone, showing Dan the ‘Your order has been received and is being prepared!’ screen. “We’ve got plenty of money in our food budget. I’ll go pick it up, you stay here and unpack.”

“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Dan asks.

“It’s cool,” Arin replies, pocketing his phone. “I know you like having your stuff unpacked a certain way, and I should give Suzy a call anyway, let her know we got in safe.”

“Oh, got it,” Dan grins, giving him finger guns. “Gotta have some phone sex.”

“Hell yeah, man,” Arin laughs. “Three minutes of phone sex on the way to the sushi place.”

“You’re living the dream, my friend,” Dan claps him on the shoulder. “Now go make _my_ dreams come true.”

“Your dream is twenty-two dollars worth of sushi?” Arin asks.

“I’m a simple man!” Dan giggles. “I have simple dreams!”

“Fine, Simple Man, toss me the keys,” Arin says. Dan gives them to him in a gentle underhand toss and cheers when Arin catches them. “Alright, be back in...I dunno. Twenty, thirty minutes?”

“Take your time,” Dan assures him as Arin heads toward the door. “Be safe! I love you!”

“Love you too,” Arin says, closing the door behind him. It occurs to him that if anyone heard that exchange, they’d probably think he and Dan were lovers. The thought puts a stupid smile on his face as he walks down the wooden, white-painted staircase.  
  
He pulls out his phone, hovers for a moment over Suzy’s name, but then scrolls down a few until he gets to Brent. He taps the name, listening to it ring in his ear until Brent picks up with a quick, curt, “Yeah?”

“What are you trying to pull here, man?” Arin asks. “The shitty motel? The only one bed?”  
  
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Brent laughs. “I really am sorry. Google fucked up, put the wrong phone number up for the other Ravenna.”

“Is there even another Ravenna?” Arin demands.

Brent laughs again. “Of course there is, man. Look it up. Danny did.”

“Danny _says_ he did,” Arin replies, unlocking his car. “Maybe you two are in cahoots.”

“Suzy’s here. She says you’re supposed to call her when you get in, not me,” Brent informs him. “You’ve got one angry wifey here, dude.”

“Ah, shit, put her on,” Arin tells him as he hops into the driver’s seat.

“Hey, honey,” Suzy’s sweet voice comes through the phone, not sounding the least bit angry at all. “How was your trip?”

The office manager waves to Arin through the window as Arin starts his car. Arin waves back as he backs out of the parking space. “It was, uh,” Arin laughs. “Well, the trip itself was fine. But didn't Brent tell you?”

“No!” Suzy replies. Her voice goes a little quieter, mouth away from the speaker as she demands, “Brent, what didn’t you tell me?”

“No, no, don’t accost Brent,” Arin laughs. “It’s cool. I’ll tell you in a sec. But, uh, first I gotta ask you something.”

“Okay,” Suzy says warily. “I don’t love that lead-in.”

“No, it’s cool, it’s good, I promise,” Arin assures her. “But is, uh, is Brent still near you? Is anyone?”

“No,” Suzy promises. “But I can get somewhere even more private, too. Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Yeah,” Arin insists. “Everything’s fine.”

“So what’s up?” Suzy asks.

Arin glances up at the window to his and Dan’s motel room. The curtains are drawn, so he can’t see anything but a sliver of light, but he can imagine. “I just, uh,” Arin swallows. “I wanted to make sure our agreement still stands.”

“You mean our Dan agreement?” Suzy sounds surprised, but pleased.

A shadow passes the sliver of light. Arin can’t quite repress his shiver. “Yeah,” he affirms. “Our, uh. Our Dan agreement.”


	2. you must be trouble for sure

_Hot thoughts melting my cool_  
_Is it your motion signalling cues?_  
_Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time_  
_You must be trouble for sure_

//  
  
By the time Arin gets back, Dan’s already changed into a pair of navy blue swim shorts, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his blanket from the car wrapped around his bare shoulders, clicking through the channels on the ancient motel TV. “It’s cold in here!” Dan announces by way of greeting.

“Probably should’ve kept your clothes on, then,” Arin replies, but he goes to turn down the A/C in the room anyway. “Here,” Arin hands Dan two neatly tied plastic bags, each filled with various styrofoam containers of sushi. “We bought so much sushi the lady at the sushi place asked if we were throwing a party.”

Dan laughs. “What’d you say?”

“Told her the truth,” Arin says. “Told her my boyfriend’s a hungry little bitch.”

“You did not!” Dan cries, doubling over laughing. “You did not say ‘boyfriend!’”

“I didn’t,” Arin admits. “I said me and my friend had just finished a cross-country road trip and had the munchies like you wouldn't believe.”

“You said ‘munchies?’” Dan asks, amused.

“I did say ‘munchies’,” Arin tells him. “You sure are very interested in my word choice this evening.”

“Arin!” Dan giggles. “She’s gonna think you were high!”

“What? ‘Munchies’ means high?” Arin gapes. “I didn’t know ‘munchies’ meant high! Nobody told me!”

“Not inherently,” Dan explains, working at untying the bags. “but also like…” He pauses to laugh. “Like pretty fucking inherently.”

“Well, fuck!” Arin frowns, flopping down next to Dan on the bed. “Now I feel bad. She was really nice.”

“Why? Don’t feel bad,” Dan insists, finally undoing the knots on the plastic bags and starting to unload the numerous boxes of sushi, spreading them out around him on the bed. “Maybe she didn’t think about it that way, I don’t know. And even if she did, who cares? It’s a sushi place. I’m sure they get high people in there all the time.”

“Oh, is sushi like a, uh, like a high people food?”

“Oh, dude,” Dan grins, opening and checking each box. “I ate so much sushi when I was high, dude. _So_ much sushi.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s a high people food just because you ate it when you were high,” Arin argues.

“I suppose that’s true,” Dan concedes. “That could’ve just been me. Well...” He pauses to contemplate and also to grab a bite of sushi. “I don’t know, though. It’s cheap, it’s fast, it’s fish, it’s...crunchy sometimes. I bet it’s popular with stoners.”

“It’s fish?” Arin quirks an eyebrow at that list item.  
  
“Yes, Arin, sushi is fish.”  
  
“Not…!” Arin shoves at his shoulder. “C’mon, man. Fish is high people food?”

“Fish is low people food,” Dan replies. At Arin’s bewildered expression, Dan explains, “Get it? It’s a sea level joke!” He holds up his hand for a high-five.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Arin groans but high-fives him anyway. “I’m trying to find out if fish is known for being something that stoners eat, because you said it like it was, but that’s kinda…”

“No,” Dan admits, sushi halfway to his mouth. “I don’t...yeah. I don’t know. It’s not, though, not to my knowledge.”

“Then why did you…”

“I don’t know!” Dan laughs. “I don’t know. Can you please just eat sushi with me?” He hands Arin one of the larger containers. “You can totally have some of whatever of the rest of these you want, too, but I got this one specifically for you.”

Arin glances down to see two of his favorite roll laid out artfully in the box in front of him. “Oh, shit,” Arin grins widely. “Thanks, man!” He breathes in deep, it smells insanely good. He grabs a pair of chopsticks and digs in.

They exchange styrofoam containers and steal bites of sushi off each others plates until the sushi is mostly gone and they’re both pleasantly full.

“I think we out-ate the stoners,” Arin remarks.

“No way, man,” Danny replies, rubbing his stomach to try and soothe the ache of overeating.  “Stoned Dan could’ve put away that whole spread. Stoned Dan was a sushi eating _machine_.”  
  
“I’ll take your word for it,” Arin remarks.

“Well, you’ll have to,” Dan points out. “Stoned Dan hasn’t been around in a while now. I can’t exactly prove anything I say.” He sits up with a slight grimace. “You ready to go swimming?”

“What?” Arin quirks an eyebrow at him. “Are you kidding me?” He pushes lightly on Dan’s naked chest. “Lay back down. We’re waiting an hour at _least_.”

Dan lets out a little whine of protest, but can’t pretend the promise of lying still for an hour doesn’t sound appealing to his aching belly. “Okay,” he concedes. “I guess I can watch another hour of motel TV.”

“There ya go,” Arin encourages. “Can we watch cartoons?”

“I don’t think there are cartoons,” Dan tells him, “there’s only like, three channels on this TV. We’ve got…” Dan clicks through the options. “The TV guide channel, news, an infomercial for...vibrators? I think? Maybe hair curlers. A shopping channel selling some, oof, _horrible_ emerald jewelry, another news channel, and golf.”

“That’s a lot more than three,” Arin points out.

“It’s not that much more than three,” Dan argues.

“It’s at least six,” Arin retorts. “That’s doubled. That’s _way_ more.”

Dan giggles. “What do you wanna watch, Arin?”

“Gotta go with stuff in holes,” Arin replies.

Dan snorts. “Is that golf or the dildo commercial?”

“Neither, really,” Arin admits. “I just wanted to make the pun. Let’s watch the bad jewelry one.”  
  
Switching back to the shopping channel, they both burst into laughter at the sight of the model wearing a pair of outrageously oversized emerald earrings with bizarre gold spikes sticking several inches out in all directions. She’s uncomfortably holding her head precariously still, afraid to move out of fear the earrings will stab her.

“Did they design those to torture the model?” Arin demands.

“That poor woman!” Dan says, sympathy in his voice. “If she moves, she dies!”

The elderly spokeswoman for the jewelry collection holds out an unfashionably chunky, heavy-looking ring for the model to try on. As she reaches out to accept it, the movement gets the earrings swinging and one collides brutally with her neck. Dan and Arin audibly wince. The model tries to force a smile. The spokeswoman appears unaware. A red spot starts to noticeably bloom on the model’s pale throat.

“Good choice,” Dan remarks. “I fucking _love_ bad shopping channel shit. Have you seen the one where the guy falls off that ladder?”

“Yes!” Arin nods excitedly. “The one where it makes absolutely _no_ sense why he fell?”

“Oh my god, right?” Dan grins. “It’s like a fucking video game glitch. One second he’s fine, the next second he’s just not on the ladder anymore.”

“It’s so bizarre,” Arin agrees.  
  
“I _love_ that one!” Dan cries. “Oh my god, or the time the guy’s describing a horse but the screen is totally showing something else, I think it’s a butterfly?”

“Or a moth or something, yeah,” Arin nods. “Yeah, I remember that one! I think we watched the same compilation.”

“I bet we did,” Dan laughs. The spokeswoman holds up the next piece. “What even _is_ that?”

“A bracelet?” Arin suggests.

“Is it?” Dan asks. “It’s too big! It looks like a metal scarf.” The spokeswoman starts wrapping the metal scarf around the model’s arm. “Oh, god, I guess it is a bracelet.”

“I told you.”

“Oh, like you actually knew,” Dan snorts. “God, this is awful. This stuff is, like, designed for the utmost inconvenience.”

“She wouldn’t even be able to bend her elbow,” Arin points out. “With that bracelet coiled from her wrist to her fucking shoulder, it’d be like a splint.”

“It would,” Dan agrees. “A very expensive, _deeply_ ugly splint.”

“I love it,” Arin says flatly. “I think she looks great.”

Dan giggles. “You do not!”

“Hey, don’t tell me what I think,” Arin says. He puts on his best Mrs. Pancakes voice, “You don’t _know_ me.”

Dan perks up at the reference and quickly takes Arin’s face in his hands, cupping his jaw and leaning in close, “Then let me _get_ to know you, damn it!” He manages to maintain an intense expression for two whole seconds before melting into helpless hysterics, pressing his forehead against Arin’s for a brief, giggly instant before letting go completely and falling back laughing onto the bed.

Arin reaches over, adjusting Dan’s blanket for him, tucking it in around his ribs and then gently running a hand over Dan’s flat stomach. Once they start being tactile, they tend to have a hard time stopping. “How’s your tummy?”

“Kinda full, but not barfy,” Dan assures him. “I’m actually super ready for swimming, but you won’t let me do that.” Dan fake-pouts but giggles and squirms as Arin pokes him in the ribs. “Ah! Don’t! No tickling!”

“You! Will! Drown!” Arin insists, punctuating each word with a gentle prod to the midsection. “Do you wanna drown?”

“No!” Dan squeals, curling up into a ball up toward the head of the bed where Arin would have to move to reach him; he’s taking a probably very likely correct gamble that Arin’s not willing to do that. “I don’t! But I think that was disproven, wasn’t it?”

“By who? Mythbusters?” Arin asks.

“No, I think, like, scientists,” Dan replies, “but I dunno, maybe Mythbusters did it too.”

“Are the Mythbusters scientists?”

“I dunno,” Dan admits. “I don’t actually know their credentials.”

“Are they just, like, a couple of dudes?” Arin asks, sounding betrayed. "Just a couple of random guys?"

“Nah,” Dan replies, “They’re definitely, like, _something_. I feel like I knew this once but it’s been a minute since I watched Mythbusters. I’d look it up, but my phone is charging, like, _way_ the fuck over there.”

“I feel you,” Arin assures him. “My phone’s in my pocket, and I’m still not fuckin’ looking it up.”

Dan reaches out to snag the last of the tempura roll and then asks, mouth full of crunchy sushi, “Can we please go swimming now?”

“Fuck it, man, you’re an adult,” Arin laughs. “You wanna go swimming, we’ll go swimming. But I’m not diving in to save you, man, I’m telling you that right now.”

“You totally would,” Dan insists, wiping a spot of sauce off the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’d dive in like a fucking Avenger and carry my lifeless body in your strong, masculine arms to the shore.”

Arin grins. “Our shirtless bodies gleaming in the moonlight,” he adds, “Lay you down on the ground and breathe life back into you. It’d be _so_ romantic.”

 _“Totes_ romance,” Dan agrees, “but it can’t happen if we aren’t in the pool, man!”

“Fine,” Arin concedes. “Give me a few to get changed.”

Dan claps and cheers. Arin grabs him by the hair and shakes him gently as he walks by. Dan tries to grab him by the belt but just barely misses, letting out a soft sound of disappointment as Arin walks out of range.

While unpacking his own stuff, Dan had set Arin’s duffel on one of the garish patterned motel room chairs, the hot pink canvas clashing brutally with the salmon and taupe hexagon print. He unzips the bag and rummages around, eventually pulling out a pair of plain black swim trunks and heading into the bathroom to change.

“She’s making her try on a choker now!” Danny calls through the door. “It’s taking up her whole neck!”

“That’s probably a relief!” Arin yells back. “It’ll protect her from the earrings!” He hears Dan laughing and laughs softly to himself as he changes. Dan left his clothes scattered randomly all over the bathroom floor; Arin nudges them into a pile with his feet to avoid getting their clothes mixed up. He grabs Dan’s hoodie off the floor as an afterthought and throws it on over his bare chest, half-zips it and heads back into the main room.

Dan raises his eyebrows. “Is that mine?”

“Yeah,” Arin replies. “Is that alright?”

“Mi ropa es su ropa,” Dan waves him off. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Arin replies. “You got a room key?”

“Oh,” Dan glances around. “Uhh…”

Arin holds his up. “Forget it, I’ve got mine, just stay with me.”

“I was planning to anyway,” Dan remarks. He shrugs the blanket off, shivering a little, running his hands up and down his arms. “Fuck. It’s still cold in here.”

“I’ll turn the A/C down some more,” Arin tells him, walking over to the ancient unit dangling out the window. “It’ll be warmed up by the time we get back.”

“Cool,” Dan grins. They head out the door together and walk out into the dim evening light. The distinct smell of weed smoke wafts up to them. Dan raises his eyebrows at Arin and then leans over the railing to find the source of it. A pair of teenage girls look up at him from the first story, each holding a joint and looking slightly worried. He gives them a nonjudgmental wave and they relax. One girl holds up her joint as an offer, Dan politely shakes his head in refusal and runs over to join Arin walking down the steps.

“This place has such a neat vibe,” Dan remarks. “I’m kinda glad we ended up here.”

“I guess you probably wouldn’t get pot-smoking high schoolers at the other Ravenna,” Arin states.

“Exactly!” Dan cries. “Not as blatantly, anyway. Maybe secretly, in a bathroom somewhere, but here it’s just like, out in the open.”

“Is that a good thing?” Arin asks, amused. “Is that a feature?”

“I dunno,” Dan admits. “But it’s a thing that’s happening. It’s a vibe, for sure.”

“For sure,” Arin agrees.

They walk around the back of the building, crossing over a flowerbed and ducking under a broken, dangling balcony rail to get to the pool area. The stones and parched plant life in the flowerbeds is less than pleasant on bare feet, and they’re both relieved to get to the rough but comparatively soothing concrete. The pool is surprisingly empty, a few discarded items left from previous guests but no one currently occupying the kidney-shaped pool or heart-shaped hot tub.

There are rooms facing this side of the building, too, balconies overlooking the pool area, which is a little bit unnerving, but they try to ignore the feeling of being watched as they head over to the pool. The water is slightly off-color, leaning more towards green than clear, and the bottom is slightly obscured by the tint. The lights along the inside look like tractor beams, like dozens of tiny UFOs are lining the pool walls.

Dan rushes into the pool as soon as he reaches it, dashing down the steps with a series of splashes and disappearing beneath the murky water, reappearing a few moments later with a sopping mess of hair in his face. He pushes it out of his face and glances around quickly, reacquainting himself with his surroundings. He brightens when he sees Arin sitting on the pool’s edge and swims up to him.

“This is _your_ hoodie,” Arin reminds him, slipping his feet into the water. “So if you’re thinking of splashing or dunking me, I’ve got that as insurance.”

“Aw, no fair,” Dan pouts, making a few tiny splashes in protest that only reach Arin’s knees. He flops inelegantly back, a small geyser of water framing his scrawny form as it collides with the water’s surface. He does the best attempt at a flip he can and then swims back up to Arin, giggling all the way.

“You’re like a little kid, man,” Arin remarks. Danny shakes his head, water flying off his hair and going in all directions. Arin throws up an arm to block his face, laughing.

“C’mon, get in with me,” Dan urges, grabbing Arin’s wrist and tugging.

“I’m still wearing your hoodie,” Arin says. “I said that like, three seconds ago!” Dan rolls his eyes, plants his hands on Arin’s knees and pushes himself up out of the water, supporting himself against Arin’s thighs until he and Arin are almost at eye level. He tries to use one of his hands but finds himself sinking back into the water unless he keeps both hands on Arin.

“Hold me up,” Dan orders, so insistently that Arin’s hands go to grab him almost reflexively, settling on his waist, finding Dan’s skin to be slightly cool and very wet and incredibly  _bare_. Hands now free, Dan reaches out to unzip the hoodie and slip it down Arin’s arms. Arin has to let him go to get the hoodie off his wrists and Dan falls back into the water with a surprised yelp.

“Sorry,” Arin says, laughing and lifting him back up. Dan rests his hands on Arin’s shoulders this time once he’s high enough to reach. Arin’s hands rest a little lower this time, he can feel the sharp, bony press of Dan’s hips in his palms. Up close, he sees that Dan’s trunks aren’t actually plain blue, but dark blue with a pattern of light blue stegosaurus silhouettes. “These are cute,” Arin remarks, brushing his thumb over the ridge of fabric at the waistband to indicate what he’s referring to. “They suit you.”

“I know, right?” Dan grins. “Blue _and_ stegosaurus? These were _made_ for me!”

“Were they?”

“Not literally, no,” Dan admits. “Not to my knowledge. Though who knows, we might have fans in high places.”

“I’m sure some fashion designer’s definitely out there making subtly Dan-themed clothing items, desperately hoping you’ll notice,” Arin affirms.

“I did think it was odd the other two pattern choices were 'tall blondes' and 'Rush’s entire discography spelled out in sushi',” Dan giggles.

“The next rack over was nothing but extra-large sneakers,” Arin remarks.

“And jeans with torn knees,” Dan adds.

“Jeans with torn knees that say ‘Skittles and Pepsi for the Soul’ across the ass in blue glitter,” Arin finishes, and Dan can’t catch his breath from laughing, ducking his head against Arin’s shoulder, his wet hair brushing Arin’s dry skin.

Someone catcalls them from the second story, whooping loudly.

“You’re beautiful!” Dan calls back.

“Your reaction to getting shouted at from a balcony by a stranger is to yell back ‘you’re beautiful’?” Arin demands, amused.

“I didn't know what else to say!” Dan protests.

“So you went with ‘ _you’re beautiful_ ’?” Arin repeats. “That’s either the most wholesome or the most…” Arin doesn’t get to give a second option, because Dan chooses that moment to deviously lock his arms around Arin’s shoulders and throw them both off-balance. Arin only has a second to realize what’s happening and take a deep breath before he’s tumbling forward into the pool.

As soon as they hit the water Dan tangles his legs with Arin’s legs, and shortly after that they gently crash into the pool floor which pushes them even closer together, their torsos colliding. Arin hears the strange sound of underwater laughter, feels the bubbles from it brushing against his neck. They stay there for a moment before Arin, needing air, pulls them both up to the surface, one arm around Dan’s waist.

As soon as they surface, Dan untangles himself from Arin to shove his hair out of his face. He’s still laughing, eyes sparking from the underwater lights. “I’m sorry,” he says before Arin can even say anything. “I couldn’t resist.”

Arin spits a mouthful of water at him. “Ugh, gross!” Dan cries.

“That’s what you get,” Arin replies, but there’s no malice in it.

“Don’t put this water in your mouth. That cannot be good for you,” Dan remarks. “That is _not_ the right color for water.”

“It’s close!” Arin insists. “It’s on the right, like, spectrum. It’s greenish.”

“It’s supposed to be blue!” Dan laughs. “It’s not supposed to be green at all!”

“Blue is kinda green,” Arin insists.

“Are you colorblind?” Dan demands. “They’re completely different colors.”

“Doesn’t everyone see colors kind of, like, differently?” Arin remarks. “Maybe my green and blue are more similar than your green and blue.”

“Maybe,” Dan concedes. He shivers slightly. “Fuck, this water’s cold.”

“Yeah, I know,” Arin replies flatly. “Someone threw me into it.”

“Sorry,” Dan giggles. “Hot tub?”

“Yeah, alright,” Arin agrees. “For a bit. I need sleep soon. I’ve been driving all day.”

“Okay,” Dan nods. “Just a for a few, just to warm up. Then we can head back to the room.”

Arin lifts himself out of the pool and then pulls Dan out after him. He pauses to grab Dan’s discarded but mostly dry hoodie while Dan excitedly races ahead to the hot tub just a few feet away. Arin’s shrugging the hoodie on, his back to Dan, when he hears him yelp.

“What?” Arin calls out. “Too hot?”

“Too cold!” Dan cries, withdrawing his foot and recoiling onto the concrete. “It’s freezing fucking cold!”

“Really?” Arin laughs. “That’s like, the one thing a hot tub should _not_ be.”

“Well, that and, like, dry,” Dan remarks. “But yeah. Try it!”

Arin dips a hand in. It’s not as icy as Dan’s shriek made it out to be, but it’s definitely not heated. “You’re right, it’s fucking cold as shit.”

“Aww, I’m sad!” Dan pouts. "I wanted a hot tub! I don't wanna get in a _cold_ tub!"

“Sorry, man,” Arin stands up and squeezes his friend’s bare, bony shoulder. He feels goosebumps already forming on the wet skin and shrugs Dan’s hoodie off, handing it to him. “Here, I think you need this.”

“I wanna say you should keep it, but I’m sorry, I don’t have it in me,” Dan admits, taking it and scrambling into it, desperate for the warmth. “Thank you.”

Arin laughs. “You’re apologizing for not refusing to accept your own hoodie back?”

“Shut up!” Dan giggles. He tugs the hood up, his face framed in dripping wet curls, and offers, “Back to the room, then?”

“Yeah,” Arin agrees. “Let’s go.”

The rocks and dead shrubs around the side of the building aren’t any more pleasant on wet skin than they were on dry. Arin has to pause to pull a particularly stubborn stone off the bottom of his foot, and is unable to warn Dan from almost walking directly into the broken balcony as he walks ahead. He spies it out of his peripheral at the last second and yelps, stumbling back in fear. Arin can’t help but laugh.

“I’m staying back here,” Dan tells him, and grabs Arin’s hand, “and if I walk into anything else, I’m blaming you!”

“Jesus, your hand is cold,” Arin remarks, covering Dan’s bony fingers with his free hand and squeezing gently, trying to warm him up.

“I told you!” Dan cries. “I’m freezing!”

Arin maintains his grip on Dan’s hand as they climb the decrepit stairs. It’s gotten fully dark now, the lights from the parking lot illuminating the building’s exterior. Arin and Dan were at the pool so briefly that the two girls are still outside smoking, and they giggle to each other as the two go by. Arin’s not sure why, at first, but then overhears one girl, the one who’d offered Dan her joint, whisper to the other, “I told you so!”

He takes in Dan wearing the hoodie Arin had left the room wearing as well as their joined hands, and can’t help but blush slightly. Dan continues rushing slightly ahead, desperate to get back to the warmth of their room, seemingly oblivious to what the girls are saying or, Arin supposes, maybe just fully unaffected by it.

“Key, key, key,” Dan urges as they get to their door.

Arin nods at him. “It’s in the pocket of the hoodie.”

“Oh, shit,” Dan fishes around in the pocket and then pulls out the tiny key ring triumphantly. He bounces on his toes with anticipation as he fumbles the key into the doorknob, and cheers when he hears the lock click. He runs into the room like he’s being chased by demons, but runs back out just as fast, colliding sharply with Arin.

“What's wrong?” Arin asks as they rotate places, Dan out in the open-air hallway and Arin in the motel room proper, but then lets out a cry of, “Oh, _fuck_ ,” as it hits him. The A/C clearly didn’t turn off when Arin turned it off before, and probably, now that he thinks about it, probably didn’t turn down when he tried to turn it down when he got back from the sushi place either. The room is sitting at a none-too-comfortable chilly temperature now, made worse by the fact that they’re both soaking wet.

“Well, you gotta come in,” Arin insists, calling out to Dan who’s huddled outside the door wearing a deeply concerned expression. “Here,” he says, holding up Dan’s car blanket to entice him.

“Fuck,” Dan mutters, rushing into the room and grabbing the blanket, wrapping himself up in it with a frown. “Can’t believe you fucking baited me like that.”

“A bro’s gotta bate his bro,” Arin grins, shutting the door that Dan left open in his rush to get to the blanket.

When he turns around, he sees Dan wrapped head-to-toe in the blanket, kicking off his stegosaurus-print trunks and then dropping onto the ground to sit in the fetal position on the floor. “No masturbation jokes,” Dan lectures sternly. “I’m dying of hypothermia over here.”

“You’re not _dying_ ,” Arin insists, but he’s running his hands rapidly up his forearms, trying to warm up. “So melodramatic. Let me try and call maintenance.”  

“Arin, it’s a motel,” Dan remarks. “There’s no ‘maintenance.’ There’s one guy, who may or may not be Ashton Kutcher, sitting behind a desk in that office.”

“Well I’m gonna try, at least,” Arin replies, and walks past Dan over to the phone on the bedside table. Dan watches him over his shoulder and they hold each others gaze as Arin dials the number written on the phone and listens to it ring again and again.

“Fuck,” Arin mutters as the ring goes on too long. “No one’s picking up.”

“Told you,” Dan says. Arin sits down next to him on the floor, not sure what else to do. Dan squirms out of his hoodie and drops it on the floor next to him.

“Why are you taking off your clothes?” Arin asks. “Isn’t that just going to make you colder?”

“They’re wet,” he replies. “If I stay in wet clothes, _that’s_ going to make me colder. Speaking of which,” Dan glances pointedly down at Arin’s wet trunks. “You’re making a wet spot on the floor, dude.”

“How embarrassing,” Arin snorts. “I’m not getting naked, though, so I guess the carpet’s just gonna have to take it.”

“It’s motel room carpeting, I’m sure it’s been through worse,” Dan remarks.

“Ugh,” Arin winces. “Don’t say that. Now I feel like I need a shower.”

Dan brightens like Arin just said the exact right thing. “That’s a really good idea, actually!” he cries.

Arin rolls his eyes. “Wow, thanks,” he says dryly.

Laughing, Dan shakes his head. “Not like that, man,” he tells him. “If we go in the bathroom and run the shower, it’ll warm us up. We can dry out in the nice warm bathroom and then try and call maintenance again or maybe even walk down to the office or something, I don’t know. My plan only got as far as ‘let’s not be this fucking cold’, but I feel like that’s still a pretty good point to get to.”

“Yeah, I’m not opposed to that,” Arin agrees. “Beats sitting here freezing my balls off against filthy fucking carpeting.”

“Yeah?” Dan grins, raising his eyebrows at him. “You wanna fuckin’ shower with me, man?” He holds out a hand.

“Only always,” Arin replies, taking his hand, squeezing it, and pulling him to his feet. Dan squeals, almost losing his grip on his blanket but fixing it just in time. They shove and trip each other all the way to the bathroom, laughing hysterically all the while.

Arin spies his phone sitting on the end table as he passes it. He briefly considers texting Suzy, but their agreement was pretty explicit. He knows he’s in the clear. Texting her for confirmation at this point would just be out of pure anxiety, looking for a reason to back out, and he’s not going to let himself do that. Not this time. He’s done that enough times already.

That’s why they came up with the agreement in the first place, after all.

The sound of water hitting the tub pulls Arin out of his thoughts. He smiles to himself, leaves the phone untouched on the end table, and walks into the bathroom.

“Took you long enough,” Dan says, grinning. His blanket’s on the floor.


	3. i'll tell it to you slow, i want you to know

_Hot thoughts all in my mind and all of the time, yeah_  
_I’ll tell it to you slow_  
_I want you to know_  
_Hot thoughts all in my mind all of the time_  
  
//  
  
“Um,” Arin remarks. Dan’s sitting bare-assed on the side of the tub. He’s got his feet in the water and his back to Arin, so it’s nothing Arin hasn’t seen before, but it’s more forward than he’s come to expect from Dan, and it gives him a moment of pause.

“Oh, sorry,” Dan says sheepishly, quickly grabbing the blanket from where it’s pooled on the ground behind him and tugging it up around his bony shoulders, folding the edges chastely into his lap. “Got a _little_ over-excited when I saw hot water.”

“You don’t have to…” Arin starts, but what’s he gonna say? He can’t come up with anything that sounds right, so he shifts paths, finishing with, “You don’t have to apologize.”

“This bath is _so_ nice,” Dan sighs, changing the subject entirely. “It’s like the one warm thing in this entire resort.”

“Resort?” Arin grins. “They’d be _so_ chuffed to hear you call this shitty motel a resort.”

“Chuffed!” Dan cries as Arin climbs into the tub. “I _love_ the word chuffed! It’s so cute!”

“It’s a super cute word,” Arin agrees, getting both feet into the pleasantly hot water. It’s only at ankle height right now, but it’s such a nice change from the icy motel room.  “This water feels amazing, holy shit.” He sits down on the edge of the tub, Dan scooting over slightly to accommodate him. Their thighs are pressed sidelong against each other, shoulders brushing.

Dan flexes his toes in the water and sighs happily. “I feel like my whole entire body is just hyper-focused on my feet.”

“I’m sure there’s someone who would be _super_ into hearing you say that,” Arin remarks. Dan snorts next to him, slightly too close to his ear. “So what’s the plan here? Are we, uh, taking a bath together?”  
  
“We could,” Dan giggles, bouncing his eyebrows at him. “Or we _could_ just run a tub of water to warm up, then drain it and just let the shower run to keep the bathroom warm while we warm up and dry off. I already feel warmer, but…” He gathers his hair up at the nape of his neck and sweeps it all over onto one shoulder, staring down at it with a slight frown and then glancing up at Arin. “I should at least wait until all _this_ dries. Sitting out there with all this wet hair was killing me.”

“Okay,” Arin agrees. He fiddles absently with a strand of his own dripping hair. “My hair isn’t actually bothering me too much, but I dunno, I’m definitely still pretty cold for some reason.”

“That’s cuz you’re still wearing wet trunks, ya big dummy,” Dan points out, knocking his knee into Arin’s. “C’mon, man, we’re all bros here. Take ‘em off. You’ll feel better.” He lets his hair go, letting it fall loose around his shoulders. “I kicked mine off the second I walked into the room. I dunno how you can stand keeping them on, honestly.” Sensing Arin’s hesitation, he adds, “You can throw a towel on if you’re feeling modest.”

“‘If I’m feeling modest’,” Arin echoes, climbing out of the tub, careful not to slip on the outdated linoleum. “Like the normal thing to do is sit around with my dick hanging out, but I _could_ not do that, if I feel like being _super_ weird.”

He grabs a thin, scratchy white towel off the rusting towel rack on the back of the door and adds, “Though that is how you were when I walked in. Maybe that was your hope all along, two bros sitting side by side with their cocks out.”

“Dude!” Dan giggles. “I told you, I just got overexcited. I saw the tub, I wanted to get in, the blanket hit the floor before I could even think about it. It’s a bathroom, man. Nudity is kind of the norm!”

“So is single occupancy,” Arin points out. “But we broke that rule right away.” He undoes the tie on his trunks and, keeping an eye on the back of Dan’s head, quickly slides the wet fabric down his hips. He half-expects to catch Dan to trying to peek, but he keeps his head chastely pointed forward the whole time. Arin’s a little stung but decides to take that as a sign of Dan being a gentleman rather than a sign of him being disinterested.

Wrapping the towel securely around his waist, Arin climbs back into the tub, now full to mid-calf. He sits back down on the side and gestures as widely as he can with the limited space between him and Dan. “There. Better?”

“Yeah!” Dan grins. “You must feel better, man.”

“I do,” Arin agrees, but in actuality he feels incredibly exposed. The thin towel doesn’t make him feel at all clothed, and he’s highly aware of Dan next to him, just barely covered by a blanket that could go tumbling to the floor with a single unplanned gesture. Sitting in the limited space allowed in sharing the side of a small bathtub, their bare knees touching, wearing nothing but two scraps of cloth wrapped semi-securely around their otherwise naked bodies...it’s definitely one of the more intimate things they’ve done.

“I’m not sure we _could_ take a bath together,” Dan states. “This bathtub is awfully small. My legs alone would take up this entire tub.”

“You do have legs for days,” Arin agrees, and glances down at them, seeing as they’re talking about them. There’s an uneven pale blotch of skin, an ages-old scar, just to the left of Dan’s left kneecap, the one currently pressed against Arin’s right thigh. It’s about the size of the nail on Arin’s thumb, and Arin reaches out without thinking, brushing the scar with said thumb to compare size. Dan gasps softly. Arin can see why - if roles were reversed and Dan touched Arin’s knee right now, when he was feeling this exposed, he’d definitely startle too.

Arin considers apologizing, but thinks that might throw the moment into even more awkward territory, so he just ignores the gasp and asks, “How’d you get this scar?”

“Oh,” Dan says, laughing softly, seemingly in relief. “It’s old as fuck, from college. I was walking through the Diag…”  
  
“The what?” Arin interrupts.

“The Diag,” Dan repeats, then tilts his head to the side. “It was...I dunno. Outside the Student Union, between the library and the…”

“I didn’t go to school with you,” Arin reminds him. “I don’t know where any of this stuff is.”

“I know!” Dan cries. “I’m just trying to explain!”

“It was, what, like a building?” Arin asks.

“No, just like, an outside area,” Dan replies. “Like in between a lot of the central buildings, and it was shaped like this…” He presses his forefinger and thumb together on each hand, forming a sort of teardrop shape.

“A diamond?” Arin says. “Are you trying to say diamond?”

“No!” Dan laughs. “It wasn’t called the Diamond, it was called the Diag. I don’t know, Arin! I didn’t name it! It’s barely even relevant to the story! I was walking _outside,_ alright? Is that better?”

“Sure.”

“Okay,” Dan breathes out a soft laugh before continuing the story. “I was walking outside, probably high as shit because, like, college, and I had headphones on, because, well, it’s me. So I’m taking a nice stony walk between classes or some shit, listening to, I dunno, probably the Red Hot Chili Peppers…”

“On a Walkman?” Arin supplies.

“Oh, you know it was on a Walkman!” Dan agrees. “Loved my fucking Walkman. Walking with my Walkman through the Diag, or, I’m sorry, just _outside_ , for the sake of clarity, and all of a sudden I am just...not, anymore.” Dan pauses to giggle softly at that.

“What do you mean?” Arin urges him to continue. “What happened?”

“At first I didn’t even know,” Dan tells him, kicking at the water a little as he talks. Arin watches the scar flex as his knee moves. “I was so stunned. I mean, to be fair, I was also stoned, but I just remember laying there on the ground, staring at the concrete I’d just collided with, trying to figure out why I was on the ground and in so much pain suddenly. It didn’t really hit me until I saw the bike on its side with the wheels spinning and the girl on the ground beside me.”

“Someone hit you with their bike?”

“Yeah,” Dan laughs. “Just fucking full-speed into my back. I’m pretty sure she was...god, I don’t even know what the term would be. Drunk cycling? Drunk biking? She was drunk driving a bike.”  
  
“Jesus,” Arin snorts. “Were you okay? Was she okay? Was the Walkman okay?”

“Well, this is the story of how I fucked up my knee, so no, I was not,” Dan laughs. “I kinda caught myself as I fell I guess, so I landed _right_ on my knee, and I was either wearing shorts or jeans with torn knees at the time, so I cut my knee up _bad,_ but the Walkman was fine, and I think she was fine, I don’t know. We didn’t really stay and talk about it. She just got back on her bike and rode off,” Dan says. He pauses, tilting his head, trying to remember. “Uh, I think she actually yelled at me, if I remember correctly?”

 _“She_ yelled at _you?”_ Arin cries in disbelief. “After she hit you with her bike?”

“Yeah, I mean, she was pretty clearly drunk,” Dan replies. “She couldn’t quite focus her eyes on me and she was slurring a lot, and that’s after she managed to ram a bike full-speed into a 6’2” giraffe of a man with...possibly blue hair? Walking in broad daylight through a college campus. But yeah, she was like, ‘You fucking knocked me off my bike!’ and i was like, ‘You hit me with your bike!’, and then yeah, I think she just kinda rode off.”

“Jesus, what an asshole,” Arin shakes his head. “I wanna go back in time and kick her ass for you.”

Dan giggles. “Well that’s sweet, Arin, but you don’t need to go back in time and kick a teenage girl’s ass for me.”

“She was a teenager?” Arin cries. “You didn’t mention that!”

“I mean, probably,” Dan shrugs. “It was a college campus so she was, yeah, probably like 18, 19.”

“Oh my god,” Arin laughs. “Is that what college campuses are like? Just a ton of drunk teenagers running into each other?”  
  
“To an extent, man? Yeah!” Dan snorts. “It’s a really surreal environment. Nobody has any fucking clue what’s going on in any aspect of their lives because we’re all, y’know, basically still children, in the grand scheme of life, but everyone pretends like they’re fucking nailing it. It’s bizarre.”

“Sounds like it,” Arin agrees. The water’s gotten pretty high as they’ve been talking. Arin gestures to the faucet and states, “You might wanna, uh.”

“Oh,” Dan nods, reaching over to switch the water off. He has to adjust the blanket slightly when he leans, Arin makes a point to look elsewhere.

Dan settles back down, crossing his ankles under the water and sighing softly. “It’s really warmed up in here,” he states. “I feel good. I feel nice.”

“I’m glad,” Arin replies. “I do too.” He tucks a stray lock of hair behind his ear and stares at the deeply outdated wallpaper on the wall behind the bathtub. He follows the strange floral pattern up to the cracked molding along the ceiling. The ceiling is like that of an office, made up of numerous white panels in a grid with some parts of the grid taken up by off-white fluorescent lighting.

Dan’s elbow bumps his, startling Arin back to reality. “Sorry,” Dan says after they’ve collided. He’s scratching at his forearm, which was the reason for the collision, combined with the lack of space between the two of their bodies. “I’m really itchy for some reason.”

“You think it’s that green pool water taking its revenge?” Arin asks.

Dan frowns. “Well, I didn’t,” he admits, “but now I’m starting to. Shit.” He scratches aggressively at the back of his leg. “It is kind of all over.” He cups his hands, using them as ladles and pouring water onto his legs, then running his hands up and down his arms. “That would make an unfortunate amount of sense."

“You wanna hop in?” Arin asks, gesturing at the bathtub. “Rinse it off? I can leave.”

“I might,” Dan admits. “I don’t want you to have to leave, though. I wouldn’t condemn you to the frozen wasteland that is our hotel room.”

“I don’t want you to just sit here itchy, though, either,” Arin argues. “That’s no fun.”

Dan pauses. “Well,” he says eventually. “If it’s too weird, I won’t, but…”

“You wanna just hop in anyway?” Arin offers. “Bath house style?”

Dan glances over at him, scratching at the back of his head, expression somewhat surprised but definitely not unwilling. “That won’t be weird?”

“I mean, probably a little,” Arin admits. “But who cares? It’s probably not even the weirdest thing we’ve done.”

“Probably not,” Dan agrees. “We live pretty bizarre lives.” He grabs hold of the blanket around his shoulders, about to take it off, but looks at Arin one more time. “Last chance to back out before shit gets kinda gay.”

“Only kinda gay?” Arin asks. “I was hoping for real gay.”

“I think for that, you’d have to get naked too,” Dan replies, and then just like that his blanket is exactly where it was when Arin walked in, discarded on the floor next to the tub, and a very naked Dan is climbing into the water that Arin’s feet are still in.

“You want me to move?” Arin asks.

“Nah,” Dan replies, sinking into the warm water with a soft sigh of appreciation. _“Ahhh_. We can share.”  So Arin stays in the water, just moving as far to one end as he can, but that turns out to be exactly where Dan’s feet need to go. It takes some fumbling and readjusting, but eventually Arin’s feet end up in the empty space where Dan’s knees would have gone if they didn’t have to rise out of the water in order to fit the length of his body into the tub. As it is, his knees are slightly tucked up to his chest, his body somewhat awkwardly bent to fit in the small space. If he wanted to, Arin could have _quite_ the view, but for now he’s angled himself so the most explicit thing he’s seeing are shins and elbows.

Dan lies back, his hair fanning out around him in the water. He lays a hand on his chest and sighs, tilting his head back further. Arin’s eyes are drawn to the angular curve of his jaw, the taut line of his throat. His lips are slightly parted as he breathes softly, his long lashes dark against soft tan skin.

He sits up abruptly, his curls dripping onto his shoulders and down his forehead, the droplets trickling down his chest and along sharp cheekbones. His incredibly dark brown eyes suddenly blink open and a soft smile slowly spreads over his face. “Someone’s staring,” he teases lightly.

“Sorry,” Arin flushes.

"Don’t be,” Dan replies. He gestures at his bare form. “Look all you want. You’ve seen me naked before.”

“I, uh, haven’t, actually,” Arin informs him. “This is the first time.”

“Really?” Dan’s eyes go wide, surprised, but then his shocked expression quickly shifts to a soft grin. “Well, here, man, you always say it’s less awkward if you get it out of the way fast, so grab an eyeful.”

He shifts his legs open and away from his chest as much as he can in the small space, but really all Arin needed was the permission. It’s not as if what Dan’s trying to show him is, uh, missable. “Oh,” Arin says, directing his eyes downward.

“‘Oh’?” Dan echoes, laughing. “That’s all I get? That’s all you’re gonna say?”

“What do you want me to say?” Arin asks, laughing with him.

“I dunno, man,” Dan giggles. “Something along the lines of ‘nice dick, bro.’”

“It _is_ nice,” Arin agrees. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to...I just didn’t know you were that big.”

“Seven and three quarters,” Dan replies, bashfully proud. “I’ve told you that before.”

“You have. I guess I didn’t believe you,” Arin admits.

“Why would I lie?”

“Well, _you_ wouldn’t,” Arin retorts. “Because _your_ dick is actually seven inches long. People _without_ seven-inch dicks, however…”

“And three quarters,” Dan adds insistently, beaming. “But thanks, man. It gets the job done. I haven’t had any complaints.” He pauses. “Well, there was that one girl who complained that it was too big, but…”

Arin snorts. “That’s a humble-brag if I ever heard one.”

“Its true!” Dan insists. “Cuz she was so _tiny_ , man, I could barely get two fingers in her, so...”

“Okay, yeah, that can be a problem,” Arin agrees.

“Yeah, man,” Dan nods, scratching at the back of his head. “Ugh, my head still fucking itches.”

“You’ve gotta wash your hair,” Arin advises sagely. He reaches up over Dan and grabs the shampoo off the rusted shower caddy and then hands Dan the tiny bottle. “It’s not gonna come out otherwise.”

“I hate washing my hair,” Dan complains. He hands the shampoo back to Arin. “Do it for me?”

“You want me to?” Arin asks.

“Will you?” Dan asks in reply. “Or is that too weird?”

“Nah, I got you,” Arin assures him. He twists the cap off the shampoo, peels off the protective seal, and sniffs at the bottle.  He nods in approval. “Oooh, I was worried it might smell like shit, going by the rest of this motel, but this shampoo smells hella nice.”

He holds it out for Dan, who breathes in deeply and then smiles. “Mmm, yeah, that’s lilacs,” Dan tells him. He furrows his brow, thinking. “And roses, maybe?”

“I always forget you know flowers,” Arin remarks, pouring shampoo into his cupped palm and closing the cap.

“Yeah, dude, I’m fuckin’...multidimensional as shit,” Dan grins.

“Yeah, seven of ‘em, you told me,” Arin snorts.

“And three quarters!” Dan giggles. Arin massages the pearlescent white soap into Dan’s wet curls, and Dan lets out a long, pleased sigh. “Ohhhh, that’s _nice._ ” His eyes slip closed and a soft, peaceful smile settles across his face.

“Glad you like it,” Arin tells him. “I did study to be a massage therapist at one point.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Dan cries. “Guess you’re fuckin’ multidimensional as shit, too.” He giggles at his own dumb wording.

“Not seven and three quarters, but I get by,” Arin retorts.

“Arin! That’s not what I meant.” Dan giggles. He peeks up at Arin. “But how big?”

“Keep your eyes closed,” Arin tells him. Dan obeys, but Arin catches a drop of shampoo that’s getting dangerously close to Dan’s eye with his thumb, just in case. “I don’t know. Six something, I guess?”

“Really?” Dan asks.

“Something like that,” Arin replies. “Close to six, anyway. I was close to seven when I was like, nineteen, but…”

“Oh, yeah, we talked about that,” Dan nods.

“You’ve seen my dick before,” Arin reminds him. “You should know…”

“It’s been a while,” Dan insists. “And it wasn’t like I was up in there with a ruler, dude, you were like, ‘Changing!’ and I was like, ‘What?’, and then I turned around and your dick was out."

Arin definitely remembers the day Dan’s describing. Danny had come over at some ungodly hour to work out and Arin, having just woken up in just a pair of boxers, stumbled out of bed at the sound of the doorbell, let Dan in, and headed back into his bedroom, only vaguely aware of Dan following him. Arin, still half-asleep, just barely murmured something about changing into workout clothes and then abruptly dropped his pants. It wasn’t a calculated move by any means, but Dan’s had a tendency to bring it up an awful lot since it happened, making Arin awfully glad it had.

“Maybe I should show you again,” Arin offers. His fingers are tangled deep into the hair at the crown of Dan’s head; he tugs a little harder than he needs to in order to free his hands and Dan grunts softly. “Here, I think you’re clean, rinse your hair before you get soap in your eyes.”

“That takes forever in a bath,” Dan states. “Let me just run the shower.”

“Okay,” Arin says. “Here, keep your eyes closed, I’ll help you.” He tugs the stopper out of the tub, climbs out of the tub himself, then takes Dans hand and pulls him to his feet, “Careful, don’t slip.” He reaches around him to switch the water from tub to shower.

Dan yelps in surprise as the water hits him in the back, then giggles. “I knew that was coming and it surprised me anyway,” he admits. He steps back into the spray of the shower, washing the soap from his hair. Arin’s kind of transfixed by the sight of the soap bubbles slowly sliding along Dan’s skin, the soft and serene expression on his face. Even the ugly fluorescent lights somehow work for him here, making him look way too good for this low-budget porno flick he’s clearly starring in.

Once the soap is safely washed away, Dan blinks his eyes open and glances at Arin. “Someone’s staring,” Dan says again, but there’s no tease to it this time. There’s...god, Arin doesn’t even know what it is, but there’s something in Dan’s tone that’s making Arin’s heart hammer in his chest, and that’s before Dan holds out a hand with a soft, “Hey, come here.”

“What?”

Dan smiles, softly. “Get in here with me. It’s nice.” He runs a hand along his chest as if to prove his point, but all he’s doing is making Arin’s mouth go dry. “It’s warmer than the tub. That water was going cold around us and we didn’t even notice. This is much better.”

“You want me to shower with you?” Arin asks. “For real, man?”

“Yeah, dude,” Dan shrugs. “Why the fuck not?”

“Can’t argue with that,” Arin states. He quickly undoes the towel from around his waist, and all of Dan’s gentlemanly, chaste behavior from before is out the window, because he is staring _hard,_ blatantly, in a way that’s making Arin’s face go warm.

“Six inches,” Dan says as Arin finally takes his hand and lets Dan help him back into the tub. His gaze doesn’t waver from between Arin’s thighs. “Yeah, I’d buy it.”

“Jesus Christ,” Arin murmurs. “You comin’ onto me, man?”

“Maybe,” Dan giggles. “A little bit. Lightly.” Arin can’t help but gape a little, because _wow,_ okay, that’s new. That’s the closest Dan’s ever come to admitting their play-flirting is more than play, and it’s while he and Arin are standing naked in a shower together. Arin’s heart thumps harder.

Dan bites his lip. “I can stop?” Arin shakes his head, almost imperceptibly. “Okay,” Dan replies softly. “Okay.”

The way Arin’s climbed into the tub has him closer to the shower spray now. He tips his head up under it, his hair having half-dried in the time spent between being dunked into the pool by Dan and right now. “You want me to wash it for you?” Dan offers.

“Thought you hated washing hair,” Arin replies.

“Hate washing mine,” Dan explains. “Yours is short and straight and soft.” He reaches out and runs a hand through the wet strands, gently untangling them. “Want me to?”

“Sure,” Arin agrees. Dan grabs the discarded shampoo bottle and pours some into his hands. Arin steps forward, out of the shower spray and even closer to Dan. They’re not quite touching, but there’s barely an inch between them.

Arin’s eyes slip closed before Dan’s hands are even in his hair. His long fingers curling against his scalp get a soft sigh out of Arin almost immediately, and he can hear the smile in Dan’s voice as he asks, “That feel nice?”

“Yeah,” Arin replies, and it comes out a little throatier than he intended it to. It _does_ feel nice, though. Arin’s always liked having his hair played with, and Dan’s fingers somehow feel so strong while also being so gentle, seeking out all the little places along Arin’s scalp that make him tingle. He supposes this must be what ASMR feels like, for those who can feel it. If it is, he understands fully why people like it so much.

“Arin,” Dan says, and there’s laughter in his voice but there’s heat there, too. “Arin, you’re getting a boner.”

“Oops,” Arin laughs softly. “Sorry. It felt _really_ nice.”

“Looks nice,” Dan says, and Arin’s face burns when he realizes what Dan’s saying. “You’re sure only six?”

“Six soft,” Arin replies. “Six and half erect, I guess.”

“I believe it,” Dan says. _“Fuck,_ Arin.” Arin can hear him swallowing, even over the sound of the shower. “Step back, let’s get this shampoo out of your hair.”

“Okay,” Arin agrees. He takes two steps back and the water fully washes over him. Dan’s hands never leave him, quite the opposite. They’re coursing through his hair, guiding the soap out, moving semi-roughly through the wet, tangled strands, tugging slightly and getting Arin gasping.

“Arin, you’re _really_ …” He swallows again, audibly. “This is really getting you hard.”

“Bet you are, too,” Arin says. His voice has gotten so deep, it almost surprises him to hear it come out of himself. “Can I open my eyes? I wanna see.”

 _“Arin,_ ” Dan cries, and it’s almost a fucking whimper. His hands still to a stop at the nape of Arin’s neck. He doesn’t really answer Arin’s question, but Arin decides to risk it anyway, blinking his eyes open and returning Dan’s gaze. Dan’s face is so, so close to his. He glances down to Dan’s lips and then back to his eyes.

“Arin,” Dan says again, more firmly this time. “Arin, I want to...I mean, I _really_ want to, but...Suzy, I can’t…”

Arin shakes his head, firmly. “I wouldn’t...Dan, if Suzy wasn’t on board, I wouldn’t have gotten into the shower with you. I wouldn’t have done, like... _any,_ of the stuff we always…I mean, not even just tonight, but...” He wants to explain, but he can’t think straight. The air smells like lilacs and roses and the room is filling with steam. “Fuck it, dude, I’ll explain in a minute, just _fucking_ kiss me.”

Dan lets out a soft little noise and then his lips are crashing into Arin’s. His hands, still at the nape of Arin’s neck, tangle into his hair as Arin’s hands find Dan’s tiny waist and grip tightly. They’re still leaving a semi-chaste amount of room between their bodies, not yet crossing that final line, but the kiss is anything _but_ chaste. In fact, it’s absolutely bruising, and so full of need and lust and desperation that Arin has a hard time pulling away for air.

“Arin,” Dan gasps. “Arin, fuck, I wanted to do that for so _long,_ but I didn’t think…”

“Shh,” Arin assures him, cupping his jawline and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. “It’s okay. Suzy and have, uh…” He smiles slightly. “We have a, uh, well, an...agreement.”

“What, like an open marriage?” Dan raises his eyebrows. “You never told me that.”

“Because we don’t have an open marriage,” Arin replies. Dan frowns. “We just have an agreement. About you.”

“Me?” Dan asks. “Me, specifically?”

“You exclusively,” Arin tells him.

“You and Suzy have talked about me?” Dan seems absolutely floored. “About sex, with me? I...what? Why?”

“Well,” Arin bites his lip. “I think you know we had...sort of a break, right? In our early twenties? Cuz we’d been together for a long time, and got worried we were missing out on something, and like, of course long story short that was fucking miserable and a horrible time because we fucking love each other too much to be apart like that but like, we also kind of agreed the idea was good in theory. Like the heart of the idea, not the break-up, but the idea of not wanting to like, be embittered with each other over missing out on something. We decided that was actually a good idea.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Dan agrees.

“Right,” Arin nods. “So we said, like, okay, rather than like, burning our lives to the fucking ground over the possibility of it happening, if we’re together and one of us meets someone we’re really into, we’ll like, talk about it. And we had this conversation when we were like, twenty, right?”

“Okay.”

“Yeah,” Arin says. “And then we didn’t have it again until I met you.”

“You had this talk when you _met_ me?” Dan gapes. “Like, right away?”

“Not _right_ away,” Arin admits. “At first I was like, really jealous of you and being stupid about it and that clouded things for a second, and then, like, y’know, it had been years since we’d last talked about it and I got all up in my head about Suzy’s reaction, like maybe she’d secretly changed her mind and she’d be mad about it if I brought it up now…” Arin trails off, then shrugs. “But yeah, I’d say within a year after we met, I went to Suzy and was like, look, I didn’t think it was gonna happen, but that thing we said we’d talk about if it happened? It’s happening, for me, with Dan.”

“Oh my god,” Dan whispers. The room feels incredibly still, like the whole universe is waiting to see how this moment is going to go. “What did she say?”

“She was, of course, super, insanely, amazingly cool about it, just like she always is and I should’ve known she’d be,” Arin laughs.  
  
Dan laughs, too. “I really didn’t expect anything less.”

“Well, you got spoilers on the ending, here,” Arin reminds him. “I had no idea how this was gonna play out. But yeah, we talked about it, set up a couple rules.”

“Rules?” Dan echoes.

“Yeah,” Arin affirms. “Nothing major. The big one was that I had to let _you_ come to _me._ ”

“Why?”

“Well, for starters, I had no idea if you even _wanted_ me, man. We worked together, I couldn’t risk scaring you off. And for another, did you miss the part where I’ve been with the same girl since I was fifteen? I didn’t know how to fucking... _anything,_ man! I was terrified! I needed...I don’t know. An excuse, I guess,” Arin admits.

“Wait, so this was your rule?” Dan asks. “That was your idea?”

“Yeah,” Arin nods. “That one was me. All Suzy really wanted was that, well, if we did anything, well...worthy, of using protection, that we used it.” Dan flushes at that. “And if we did anything at all, I would tell her.”

“In, like, detail?” Dan clarifies.

“She said that’s up to me,” Arin informs him. He chuckles slightly, “She said she mostly just wanted to know when she could bond with you over boning the same dude.”

Dan bursts out laughing. “Yeah, okay, that sounds like Suzy.” He pauses. “She won’t be upset that you told me to kiss you, though? That’s not, like, against the rules?”

“Nah, you said you wanted me after pulling me into a shower with you, I promise we’re well in the clear,” Arin grins. “She’s not gonna get, like, super technical on us, man, especially over something that was my rule in the first place.”

“Okay,” Dan says. “Sorry. I just want to make sure. The last thing I wanna be is a homewrecker.”

“You’re not wrecking our home, man,” Arin assures him. “You’re probably gonna be _invited_ to our home, even more than you already are. Suzy is going to fucking _love_ teasing us about this, in the sweetest, cutest, Suzy-est way possible.”

“Okay,” Dan says. His eyes go wide for a moment, then suddenly shy. He bites his lip. “So we could do, like...anything?”

“Anything you want,” Arin promises him. “You just gotta ask for it.”

“That’s a lot of power,” Dan remarks softly. He glances up at Arin, a blush high on his cheeks. “You, uh. Ever teach someone how to give you a blowjob?”

“Fuck,” Arin breathes. “No, but I bet I could.”

“I know the basics,” Dan says, and holy shit, he’s actually sinking down onto his knees. This is happening. “I mean, I’ve never given one, but I've gotten quite a few.”

“Humble-brag,” Arin accuses.

“Shut up,” Dan grins, swatting lightly at Arin’s thigh. “I think I get the basic concept, but I might need some encouragement.”

“I’ll be very encouraging,” Arin insists. “I’ll say really nice, encouraging things like, uh, ‘You look really fucking good on your knees’ and, um, ‘No, really, you look so good on your knees that I might seriously fucking blow my load just looking at you.’”

Dan smiles up at him, shyly. He wraps a hand around his cock (and holy shit, Dan’s _hand_ is on his _cock_ ) and then licks slowly, experimentally across the tip. The light, ticklish sensation feels insane, like it’s shooting down his shaft and zinging across his balls, and Arin hisses out a sharp, drawn-out, " _Yessssssss._ ” Dan slowly works up to sucking the tip into his mouth, and _fuck_.

“You’re doing so good already, holy shit,” Arin breathes. He rests a hand on Dan’s jawline, his thumb brushing his cheekbone affectionately. “I love that you wanted to do this, dude. I tell you that you can have anything, and you chose to fucking blow me? That’s fucking awesome. _God.”_

Sliding off for a moment, Dan looks up through his lashes, his lips rubbed slightly red already, and smiles sweetly at him, pumping his cock steadily in his fist. “Wanna make you feel good,” Dan admits. “More than anything, I…” He swallows, licking his lips. “That’s what I like most about sex. That’s why I like it _so much_ , y’know, cuz that’s what it comes down to. Or what it should. Loving each other so much that you wanna take the time to make each other feel as good as you can, and trusting the other person to want that for you.”

He swipes his tongue right along the slit of Arin’s cock and then blinks up at him. “Love you so much, man. So yeah, given the choice to do anything? I’m gonna do what I think will feel best for you, dude. Hundred percent.”

Dan jerks him off until Arin starts moaning and then gets his mouth back onto his shaft, taking the already intense feeling and ramping it up. Arin’s toes curl against the floor of the tub and his fingers curl into Dan’s hair, not trying to force him down further onto his length but just needing something to hold onto. Dan’s hand covers Arin’s, bending his fingers and making him grip tighter. Arin catches on and pulls a little on the strands, and the resulting groan deep in Dan’s throat feels like a vibrator pulsing around his cock. Arin cries out sharply.

He pulls off with a soft pop and goes back to jerking him. “Sorry,” Dan says, “I can’t do it for very long. I’m still getting used to the feeling, and you’re _big_ , dude. You’re making my mouth hurt.”

“It’s okay,” Arin breathes. “Everything you’re doing is so amazing, I have zero complaints.”

“I’m glad,” Dan replies. “You make the best noises, I could come just listening to you.”

“Well, don’t,” Arin tells him, “and I’ll return the favor.”

“Really?” Dan asks, eyes wide. “You’ll suck me off?”

“If you’ll let me, yeah.”

“Fuck yeah, I’ll let you,” Dan breathes. “But now I gotta make this blowjob extra good, make sure you don’t outshine me.” He sighs, staring up at Arin, cheeks pink. “If I fail spectacularly at this, you’re not allowed to _ever_ bring it up again!” He laughs softly, self-effacing. “That’s _my_ rule for this!”

He takes one more deep breath and then takes Arin’s length into his mouth again, continuing past the point he had gone previously. He keeps staring up at Arin, then lets his eyes slip closed as he takes even more length. Arin feels his cock bump the back of Dan’s throat. He chokes a little, squeezes his eyes closed, and swallows around him.

“Dan,” Arin whimpers softly. “Dan, that feels amazing, but you don’t have to…”

Dan swallows again, taking him even _deeper._ One hand is on the back of Arin’s thigh, the other covering the few inches of length Dan can’t take in quite yet. He bobs his head slightly, squeezing Arin’s thigh tight to relieve some of the pressure he’s feeling. He swallows, chokes, and then slowly eases off.

“Wow,” Dan says, voice slightly wrecked. “Okay. Gotta admit, did _not_ hate that.” His hand lands on his throat, pressing experimentally. “It kinda hurt my throat, but I like it. What do you think that means?”

“That you fuckin’ love the feeling of sucking cock,” Arin replies. “Which kinda makes sense. You’re always going on and on about how much you _love_ giving girls head.”

“I do,” Dan admits. “But that’s more about what they’re feeling than me. But I liked how you felt in my throat. I _really_ liked the feeling of sucking you off.” He swallows, hard. “My throat feels kinda swollen, but I wanna do it again.”

“Follow your heart,” Arin tells him. “Just don’t hurt yourself for my benefit.”

“It’s not,” Dan replies. “It’s for me, and _that’s_ new.” He sucks Arin’s cock down into his throat again, moaning around it. Arin almost loses his footing, gripping both hands in Dan’s wild curls to stay upright. Dan slides off with an obscene pop. “Okay, you pull my hair while I have your cock in my throat, and I’ll most definitely blow before you get a chance to suck me.”

“Noted,” Arin replies, and settles his hands on Dan’s shoulders. “Better?”

“No,” Dan admits. “But yes, better, if your goal was to suck me off. Speaking of which…” He licks a long stripe from base to tip on Arin’s cock. “God, there’s so much you can _do_ with a cock. I love just trying shit out and watching your reaction. I _love_ this.”

“Just make sure you let me get you off,” Arin pleads.

“Okay,” Dan agrees. “I do like the idea of coming with your cock in my mouth, though.”

“Fuck,” Arin moans. “Later. Eventually.” He looks down at Dan, suddenly serious. “I don’t want this to be a one-time thing.”

“I don’t want _anyone_ to be a one time thing,” Dan confesses, “least of all you. Believe me, I’m _into_ this. The only reason this won’t keep happening is if you or Suzy tells me it can’t.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Arin assures him.

“Then this can keep happening,” Dan replies. “As many times as you want.”

“Good,” Arin replies. “Cuz this is too good for it to end after tonight.”

“I feel the same way,” Dan assures him. “But my mouth’s kinda busy right now, so this conversation’s gonna happen later.”

“I am absolutely fine with that, _fuck_ ,” Arin groans as Dan takes an impressive amount of his length back in right off the bat. “The fact that this is your first time giving a guy head is a _crime._ The world has been missing out.”

Dan smiles as much as he can with five inches of cock down his throat. It’s quite the sight, and Arin gasps out another sharp moan as he grabs hold of Dan’s hair again. It’s good that Dan likes this, because it’s the most instinctual place for Arin to grab, and he has to ground himself with _something,_ because holy _fuck._ His cock is down Dan’s fucking throat, and with Dan’s softly verbalized moment of realization before, combined with the blissed-out expression he’s wearing now, Arin’s pretty solidly convinced Dan actually really fucking _likes it._

“Fuck, man, if you don’t want me coming in your mouth, you might wanna…” Arin slams a fist against the wall of the shower to avoid doing anything that might hurt Dan or cause him to come before Arin can get his mouth on him. Dan maintains solid eye contact until Arin can’t keep his eyes open anymore, coming so hard his knees turn to jelly.

As soon as it’s over he sinks to the shower floor, kneeling in front of Dan and burying his face against Dan’s shoulder. He hears the sound of it as Dan swallows his release, and breathes a soft “ _Fuck,_ ” against his neck.

“Love you, Big Cat,” Dan murmurs, tucking his hair behind his ear and pressing a soft kiss to Arin’s forehead. “Did so good.”

“I did so good?” Arin replies. “Dude, you sucked my dick like it was your fucking _job.”_

“Glad I could give you the, uh, prostitute experience,” Dan giggles. “We got the right setting and everything, this shitty motel bathroom.”

“An hour ago you were calling it a resort,” Arin reminds him. He pushes Dan back gently, laying him down as much as he can with the limited space. One of Dan’s legs ends up outside the bathtub, the other awkwardly shoved between Arin’s body and the wall of the tub, but the pose he ends up in is...wow. Legs splayed open and laying on his back, his impressive cock jutting up into the air, full erect, the tip glistening. His hair still wet from the shower, falling all over his shoulders and slightly into his flushed face, lips still swollen from Arin’s cock.

“You gonna do something?” Dan asks. “Or just stare at me?”

“Sorry,” Arin replies. “I can't help it. I've got a really nice view. Had to take a moment to appreciate it.”

Dan giggles and blushes further. “Arin!”

“Not my fault you’re fuckin’ hot,” Arin retorts. He slides in closer, lowering himself so he’s half laying on top of Dan. It’s not the most comfortable position, but Arin has a feeling he won’t have to do this for very long.

“You ever suck a dick before?” Dan asks.

“Not a real one,” Arin replies. He wraps a hand around Dan’s length and Dan’s hips lift up off the tub floor, a soft cry escaping his lips. Yeah, he’s _definitely_ not gonna have to do this for very long. “Suzy’s got a strap-on.”

“I, _ahhh,_ I knew that,” Dan tells him.

“Yeah,” Arin nods. “I’ve told you that before. What I didn’t tell you, though…” He licks along the tip and Dan whimpers. “You know why Suzy bought it? Originally?”

“Hm?”

Arin wraps his hand around the base of Dan’s cock and locks eyes with him, wanting to see his reaction to this next part. “Suzy bought a strap-on and said it’d be good practice for when I made good on our agreement. She said it’d be good practice for when I finally got to suck you off.” Arin smirks. “I hope the practice pays off.”

Maintaining eye contact, Arin slowly slides his mouth down to meet his hand, swallowing around Dan’s impressive length like it’s nothing. The sound Dan makes is like nothing Arin’s ever heard come out of him, and if Arin hadn’t just come, he’d probably have done so right then and there just from hearing it.

“Arin, I’m not gonna last like this…” Dan whimpers. “Can I…”

Arin winks at him in answer, bobbing his head up and down Dan’s length and running a hand up Dan’s chest, pinching at a nipple. Dan thrusts into Arin’s mouth, moaning and sobbing. Arin feels his cock twitch in his mouth, and then Dan’s coming, hot and thick down his throat, and Arin can’t help but moan around him at the feeling.

Abruptly, Arin grabs Dan by the back of the neck and pulls them both to their feet, crushing their mouths together and pressing Dan against the shower wall. The shower spray is still going, dousing them with hot water as they make out like teenagers. He can taste himself in Dan’s mouth, he’s sure Dan’s getting the same experience. It’s fucking filthy, and Arin fucking loves it. The way Dan’s clinging to him, Arin assumes he feels the same.

“New idea,” Dan says when they separate. “We don’t call the manager. We don’t walk down to the office. We get out of this shower…” Arin lets out a soft whine of protest, and Dan smiles. “I know, I know, but hear me out. We get out of this shower, make a mad dash to the bed, and, uh, keep each other warm under the covers.”

“Might still be a little cold,” Arin warns him. “Especially coming straight from the shower.”

“Trust me,” Dan says with a coy smirk. “We’ll find a way to warm up.” He presses one more quick, soft kiss to Arin’s lips, then grabs his hand and pulls him with him out of the shower. The second they open the door, a gust of A/C rushes into the room, getting them both squealing and clinging to each other.

As they’re tripping over each other’s feet and every piece of furniture they pass, Arin bumps into the end table and notices his phone. He grabs it on his way by and then joins Danny in burrowing under the covers, covering his head and hiding beneath the covers with him like children in a blanket fort.

Dan notices the phone and smiles. “You gonna do what I think you’re gonna do?”

“Probably should,” Arin tells him.

Dan nods in affirmation, cuddling in close. “Go ahead,” Dan assures him. “I’ll be here.” Arin unlocks his phone and dials the familiar number. He’s staring down at Dan, naked and shivering but giggling and clinging to his chest happily, when Suzy answers.

“Hey, honey,” Arin smiles. He wonders if she can tell just from his voice, but he says it anyway. “Guess what I just did.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> please please PLEASE leave a comment if you read this!!! i worked so fucking long on this fic, hooooooooly shit haha


End file.
